This invention relates to musical drums and more particularly to an adjustable camber induced snare assembly for a snare drum.
Snare drums are different from all other drums which generally consist of a hollow body or shell with a striking or batter head and a lower head. Snare drums utilize snares held against the outside of the lower head. Snares were originally made of gut. Beginning in the 1900's, snares were being made of small would wires or metal helices. The snares nowadays are made even harder and brittle by chrome plating or heat treating to harden. Up until the 1960's,. the drum head were generally made of animal skin. However, these heads were sensitive to humidity and temperature. Thus, drum head since the 1960's have generally been composed of polyester film commonly referred to as MYLAR.RTM.. The combination of the polyester film and chrome plated metal snares creates a bright, colorful tone from the snare drum that is sharply defined and crisp.
Snares are often held against the lower drum head or snare head by a snare strainer. The snare strainer performs two basic functions. When you "throw on" or pull up the snares against the head, you are also pulling the snares from a "loose" state to a "tensioned" state across and in contact with the lower head. These two basic functions of tension and head contact relate to drum sensitivity and playing volume.
For snares to vibrate against a softly played drum, they need to be at a loose tension. If the tension is too tight, the drum will "choke" and produce an uncharacteristic or undesirable sound. If the drum is to be struck hard, there is a tendency for the loosely tensioned snares to fly away from the lower head creating dead spots.